Zimbabwebound

Reflection From Jodi
Well the time has come for us to head off on our way back home. In many ways we are sad to be leaving & would love to stay longer in this fantastic place. We have felt very at home here & despite all the hardships we have witnessed & experienced while we have been here we will be back. People are leaving this country in droves, we have found that it is a country in need of people to come here & help - just to love these people really does make all the difference in their lives. We have reflected constantly that if the people in Australia were to go through what these people go through everyday, they just wouldn�t be able to cope. We are just so thankful to have had these experiences & thank you to everyone who has blogged with us along the way, it has been great to keep in touch & it is a huge encouragement for us to hear that people back there a thinking of us & praying for us.

Reflection From Andrew (Harry)
As I reflect over our Blog it makes me reminisce fondly on our time here in Zim. Time has just gone soooo fast, it only feels like we arrive last week yet we have witnessed and got involved in sooo many things. We are still exploring our part in God�s will and we are seeing more realistically were we fit. Our prayer before we left was to find our place in God�s will and that we would see what He has us doing in the future … well I can confidently say that He has shown us a little bit more and boy are we excited. Thank you all for your support and encouragement through responding to our blogs and through your constant prayer we have been truly blessed. See you all in a week or so.

In His Service,

Jodi and Harry.

We were off to the Baptist church this morning for a family service where the kids performed a few items. Both the songs & message was kiddie friendly & everyone joined in & had a great time. They have a family service once a month to ensure the kids are getting involved with the church & seeing how adults behave in this situation, it also helps the adults to see how their kids are behaving & growing within the church environment.

We finally got to go to Motobo. It is something that was planned for us to do on our first weekend here, but due to the crazy weather we couldn�t go. We had a huge picnic lunch sitting beside a beautiful lake, the only thing that spoilt our time were the flies - these are not ordinary flies, they lay eggs on your clothes & they can burrow into your skin & hatch inside you, so that can be quite painful. We then walked up to World View, a beautiful lookout over the rocky scenery. There were two graves up there, & a monument to people who died in the war. It is unlike any scenery we have here - the balancing rocks are huge & it looks like a giant has just picked up a heap of stones & piled them up, such a pretty site to see in amongst all the greenery from the recent rains.

Today was great day, we had a sleep-in & then we were taken to a café for a late breakfast. The food was quite nice, Harry liked his coffee but the tea here leaves a lot to be desired. They have it weak, milky & most people have heaps of sugar, (I am yet to see tea leaves). After a relaxing start to the day we headed off to run a few errands & checked out some shops in a mall we had not been to yet.

Next we went on to visit my favorite kids one last time, I am glad we did. When we arrived we could hear the kids crying from outside. We went in & found all of the kids still in their cots & not a nurse in site. We had stopped along the way to buy some disposable nappies to change the kids, it turns out this was a good idea. The hospital once again had no steam, so the kids had no nappies on & only a few of them had bits of ripped up cloth wrapped around them. So after changing them all we took them all out of their cots & held them & played with them, they are all so craving for affection. Sadly the time came for us to say goodbye to the kids & once again I could not get the baby off of Harry – for a guy that can’t stand holding babies he certainly is doing a lot of it. It is sad to have to leave these kids in such bad conditions, especially when we have been able to see the kids open up to us & have formed such close bonds with them.

Our wake up call at 6.00am was on time and both Andrew and I got up left for our walk around the falls at 6.30. As we approached the gates we saw that there were six guards, so our plan to pretend to be locals went out the door - we borrowed ID�s & rehearsed all of the details but in the end we were not that confident (the price for locals is $460,000. = $2.30 US compared to $4,000,000 = $20 US for tourists). Our walk took about 1 � hours to go all the way around, we had been told that we will get soaking wet, but we were nearly at the end & still dry so we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. It all changed as we got to Horse Shoe Falls Lookout where we had a bit of mist spray on us. We walked on around the corner to see the mist poring down like rain, we thought we were already wet so we would be brave & go right around the front (there is a back way - not so wet), it was as we were slipping & sliding on the rocks that we decided that we were apparently not that wet before.

We got back to the hotel, had a quick shower & headed to the restaurant for breakfast. We were in heaven! As we were sitting at our table drinking tea & coffee, gazing over the waterhole it was then that I decided that I am a hotel person, not a roughing it person. We were once again bursting from eating too much.

Begrudgingly we checked out of the hotel & went back to the markets to get some more bargains. This time we took some of our shirts & jeans to trade because the day before people wanted to trade for the shirts & shoes we were wearing. So with our suitcase full of stone carvings instead of clothes we got back into the car & headed off for our long five hour drive back to Bulawayo.

We decided to pack up camp early this morning … I think that the flies heard about our plans and decided to join us … my goodness, the amount of flies buzzing around this place at 6.30 was phenomenal … I am used to seeing one or two by about 9.30am on hole 10 or 11 on the Keperra golf course not 1,000,000 at sun up. But that is Africa for you I suppose. An idea was put forward and the vote was unanimous that before traveling too far a buffet breakfast at the Hwange Safari Lodge was in order. It was very relaxing and quite different to the bowl of muesli and warm milk we had on the previous day. With bloated stomachs and eager spirits we finally departed to see the world famous Victoria Falls.

The journey was not as long as Day Nineteen … we were only cramped into the 2.5 seater ute for about 4 hours, what a relief. By the time we arrived our rooms were ready and boy did they look good, we had an awesome view of the surrounding savanna and waterhole where impala enjoyed a refreshing drink. We only had time to quickly admire the view before we were off again to find more curios. We finally got our chance to barter and boy did Jodi go off … An absolute star when dealing with the likes of the pushy (and sometimes rude) African sales folk. Any body who knows Jodi knows how feisty she can get; well it came in very handy when searching for a bargain … no body could shaft this little rocket. With a few curios in our hand we departed the market place pleased with the bargaining which was done.

This afternoon Jodi was able to shed the shackles of poverty and enjoy the elegance and ambiance of high tea at the Victoria Falls Hotel. This hotel is the finest in Victoria Falls and has a price to match. The view from our table was delightful as we looked across the freshly manicured lawns and out into the gauge with the bridge which crosses the Zambezi.

Our dinner tonight was at the Boma. This was my first chance to trial chibuku (the African version of VB) and I have to admit … I will probably never willingly drink it again. The dinner was definitely appetizing and we left with belly�s full of all different kinds of game meat (Impala, warthog, ostrich, mopani worm and the list goes on). This restaurant also has traditional dancers which perform throughout the night and at the end, all guests are given a drum and are educated on how to do the African beat. What a great way to finish after two nights of roughing it in the bush.

We were off by 6.am to see how far the lions were from us the night before & I can assure you that they were only about 300m from our camp (not the 2-3km they were telling me the night before). Even though we only saw 1 of the big 5 (the elephant) we still saw heaps of animals & we had such a great time. We got to see heaps of Giraffe, Elephants, Warthog, Baboon, Monkey, Zebra, Impala, Eland & so on. It is quite different to see them in the wild instead of zoos.

We had a bit of rain today so a lot of the animals were in hiding & keeping a low profile - not so good for finding wildlife, but great for a person who is scared out of their wits.
I handled my second night better that the first, I was still very on edge but felt a little assurance in knowing that Lions don�t hang around the one area, they roam around to find more animals so the possibility of them being anywhere near us was pretty low.

Today was a long day! By the time we got the tires checked, our camping permit & our pizzas to take with us we were off at about 12.30pm. We got to the National Park at about 4.pm & then found out that the campsite we were allocated was the furtherest from the gate, so about 6.pm we were finally at our destination. I quickly checked out the kitchen & decided that it was not suitable to sleep in, so I then I checked out the toilet & the four walls were strong, the window closed & the door was sturdy, it was way more suitable.
I was a bit on edge as there is no lighting to see what is creeping around your camp, as soon as I heard the Lions roar I ran for the car & let me tell you Harry was not very compassionate. It took our friend Derek a while to convince me to get out & even then I was sooooooo scared I hated every minute that went by until I could get to bed.

Today was a pretty easy going day, we went curios (souvenir) shopping . There is so many nice things, but having such strict regulations in Aus it really restricts what we can bring back.
Well tomorrow we are off to Hwange National Park to see the big five and Victoria Falls. I (Jodi) have already reserved the camp ground kitchen (at least it has four walls, a door & a roof), there is no way you would ever get me in a tent in the middle of a game reserve! … We shall blog again on Friday or Saturday. Have a great couple of days … we know that we shall.

Wow … what a busy weekend. They were long jam packed days. On Friday night … or should I say Saturday morning the kiddies didn’t get to sleep until 2am, then they were awake again and running around the camp grounds at about 5.30am. This did not really leave much sleeping time for us leaders. The children though had a really good time, eating lots, playing games and learning more about God. On Saturday evening a couple of the groups wanted to do a couple of skits … we thought that it would take only 2 or 3 minutes, but after 25 scenes and 45 minutes later the first skit finished and we still had another one to go … it didn’t matter though because the other kiddies were laughing and really enjoying what was being presented.

Before we knew it the weekend was over and we all headed back home on the Sunday afternoon. We came back to the western suburbs to find out that a football match had just finished. People and cars were hoarding the streets; there was hardly any room to move. Driving through this traffic was like nothing I have ever experienced before in my life. I was given one road rule … there are no rules. I am glad I was given that rule … the people in the other cars were absolutely ruthless. But we made it though, even though I have a few more grey hairs there were no other damages.

Well I must be off now … we shall blog again soon.

We are happy to be back in Bulawayo! We went back to my favorite place this morning to see the abandoned babies (I have been breaking my neck to get back there). We were both happy & sad to be there, we were able to take all of the kids out side to play for half an hour because there were about 10 of us visiting. We found out that one of the little boys who we fell in love with after only one visit has now been put in an orphanage so it was a little sad to think that we will never see him again. The other little boy that we are madly in love with is nicknamed Daniel (because no one can say his real name), I was looking forward to seeing him soooo much but I couldn’t get him off of Harry, so I only got a quick hold just before we left. It broke my heart to leave him there & knowing that he could so easily be ours if we stayed here does not make it any easier to go home.
This afternoon we headed off to Willow Park with a heap of orphans for the weekend, we had a lovely afternoon & although there were a few hiccups to start with the evening went well.